Chari, South India

Chari (‘च्यारी’) is a community of artist in Goa. They are the traditional Hindu carpenter in Goa. The Chari is corrupt form of the word Acharya (Sanskrit: आचार्य) which means the teacher of religion. Surname Acharya is still present in Chari in some part of south India. Those Chari who has left Goa long ago has a surname as Charya (Sanskrit: चार्य). So in short Chari derived from Acharya -Charya- Chari .Since Portuguese has ruled Goa for 450 years the surname Chari is only present in Goa .They are also referred as ‘Sutar’ which has derived from Sanskrit word ‘Sutradhar’ which means the designer in Ancient India. Sometimes they are referred as ‘mest’ or ‘thavoi’ which means carpenter & stapathi respectively. Those who were good artist were called as ‘Fishal’. For some Chari Portuguese gave surname as Zo which means artist.

History

*Chari belong to Panchal Brahmans which is also known as Viswakarma Brahmans . They were also called as ‘Shivabrahman’. ‘Saiyadri Khanda’ of ‘Scanda Puran’ says that artist of ancient Goa is called as ‘Shaivagayatri Brahmans’. Those Chari who fled Goa during Portuguese time to prevent them being converted to Christianity & settled in Solapur district are still known as ‘Shiva Brahma Sutar’ . Chari has their origin from Manu & Maya two of the sons of Lord Vishwakarma, the Divine Architect and craftsman in ancient India. In ancient India Panchal were called as ‘Missionary of civilization, culture & religion’ since Panchal spread Vedic religion in other part of world.

Position in Goa

*Since Chari are traditional carpenters of Goa their main occupation is carpentry. They do smithery also. In fact, they are master in most of the technical work; so they are also referred as a borne engineers. Afonso de Albuquerque, the first Portuguese governor general of Goa has referred in one of his letters that guns manufactured by the blacksmith (Chari) in Goa are better than those made in Germany. A century later the Viceroy D.Jeronymo dl Azevedo banned the manufacture of guns in village of Cuncoli or anywhere in Salcete under penalty of four years in the galleys and even hanging. In Goa they played an important role in history. There were many temples in Goa. Portuguese destroyed more than thousands of temples, out of which some had marvelous beauty. Chari being an artist most of the temples were done by them. So in goan society they had much importance. They have been given rights in many of temples of Goa as sevekari. Without Chari many of rituals performed in temples cannot complete.

Religion

Chari are predominantly Devi worshipers.Fact|date=July 2007 Panchayatana puja is a prominent aspect of Devi worship, but do not do not worship any form of Vishnu as their Kuldevta because they are Smarthas which is called ‘adave’ in local language.Fact|date=July 2007They worship Vishwakarma since they have descended from him. Chari are Smarthas still their main community deity is ‘Shree Ragunath (Ram)’ of Gimoney. This temple has history of more than 500 years. It was destroyed by Moghal aggression in 16 century but Chari reconstructed it. They have Shree Ram’s temples at Mayade & Vasco. Also the main goddess to whom every Vishwakarma people worships is Kalika.Fact|date=July 2007 Her temple is situated at Ancola in Karnataka & she is known as Kallama.situated at They also have their own Gurupth situated at Majale, Goa Karnataka border & it is known as ‘Lohamath’. It is said that Lohamath is 700 years old and was set up by ‘Kanakacharya’ (the spiritual Guru of Chari at that time) with the guidance of Virupaksha Math. If proper history of this muth is known then it will be milestone in the history of Chari & also artist of Goa.

Families in Chari

Though the surname ‘Chari’ is used by every Chari , but still they can be differentiated based on their village where their Kuladevata has her temple. Some Chari families are as below.

Notable Vishwakarma Individuals

*Late shree Pandit Prabhakar Chari (Tabala)
*Shee Somanathbuvo Chari (Vocalist)
*Late shree Narayan Sonaodekar (Artist who has created the statue of Swami Vivekananda at Kanya Kumari)
*Shree Madhusudhan Chari (Vocalist)
*Shree Ravindra Prahabhakar Chari (sitar)
*Smt. Seema Shirodkar (harmonium)
*Shree Purnananda Chari (Konkani writer poet)
*Saint Changdev (great saint from Maharashtra who believed to live for 1400 years)
*Saint Visobha Khecher (Guru of great Marathi saint Namadev)
*Saint Jalogi & Malogi Maharaj (Two brother saint from Maharashtra)
*Prof. Raghuvir Chari (Mechanical Engineer whose name has included in World’s engineers list)
*Late Vaman Zo (artist famous for carving)
*Shree Damodhar Chari (Kirtancar, Vocalist)
*Shree Deevi Souri babu (famous drama artist,(divi seema)avanigadda,AP)